About Project

The aim of a project under the title Thematic Catalogues of Czech Composers Online was to gain experience in the electronic processing of thematic catalogues using the MerMEId editor, developed by the Royal Danish Library; to create a dedicated interface for the web publication of processed data; and to establish a portal gathering information on thematic catalogues and inventories related to the music of the Czech lands. The project ran from 2018 to 2021 within the framework of the Strategy AV21 programme (research programme Paměť v digitálním věku) in cooperation with the Czech National RISM Group at the National Library of the Czech Republic and other institutions.

The pilot publication was the thematic catalogue of works by Josef Brentner (1689–1742). This composer was chosen because of the manageable scope of his oeuvre and surviving sources, as well as because preparatory work had already been carried out within another project. The follow-up titles comprise the thematic catalogues of works by Antonín Reichenauer (1696–1730) and Bohuslav Matěj Černohorský (1684–1742), which are being published as works in progress.

The bibliographic overview of thematic catalogues provides information on catalogues of composers’ works, music collections, and specific repertoire areas connected with the music of the Czech lands. It encompasses publications of various levels, concepts, and periods; it is therefore not a selective list recommended for use in, for example, cataloguing practice.

The list of music inventories gathers basic information on historical inventories relating to music in the Czech lands. Its focus is on thematic inventories of music materials – that is, those supplied with musical incipits.